Le Métro : The ideal vs. the beautifully flawed reality

Friday evening and the Paris metro could not be more of an acute opposite to this beautiful and gloriously well-shot ‘Sub-city’ video by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason.

In reality, the metro is a cacophony of life stories written on the faces of an interesting and ever-changing cast of commuters. Borugeois, BoBo, Banlieu- bound … it is rarely ever a completely dull place to sit and people-watch.

Then, there is the perpetual presence of visitors to Paris who perform and place national stereotypes on display: Be it the easily identifiable visitors speaking in that oh-so loud, strange language while almost always dressed in colourful clothing with words written on their oversized t-shirts. Then, there are the camera wielding, small-sized visitors who cannot read any of the signs, yet somehow manage to drop off at the right station and take pictures of everything while at it. Then of course, there are the large waves of chattering baby boomers, each speaking at exactly the same time, yet, somehow managing to communicate to each other that the next stop is the correct one to drop off. Then, they all fly out in formation before emerging from the metro with looks of utter confusion.

It is a fascinating place, the Parisian metro. And, one can only dream that this beautiful vision of the Metro in the video where true.

Or, may be not. What would the Paris Metro be without the sound of aspiring artists, angry young people, visitors with bewilderment permanently written on their faces, the overdressed, sunglassed visitor attempting to pull-off a ‘Paris-look’ – and of course, the traumatised daily commuters who have learned to simply sit and observe the madness and beauty that is the Paris metro ride?